Last month, Vice President J.D. Vance lectured European leaders about their troubling retreat from free speech, calling their actions "shocking to American ears" and a threat to democracy itself. Yet new global survey data reveal a troubling incongruity in Vance's own backyard: Despite boasting the world's strongest constitutional protections, Americans' support for free speech is eroding dramatically, particularly among younger generations.
At a time when the Trump administration weaponizes power against its critics and the left increasingly equates speech with harm, America is losing its civil libertarian commitment precisely when this foundational right faces unprecedented pressures from both cultural intolerance and governmental overreach. If Americans fail to recognize and reverse this trend, the country's status as a beacon of free expression risks fading.
The 2025 Future of Free Speech Index, based on surveys conducted in 33 countries, places the United States ninth globally in free speech support—a respectable but hardly exceptional position. More concerning is the trajectory: The U.S. has experienced the third-largest decline in support for free speech since our previous survey in 2021, behind only Japan and Israel.
